That’s great news for the Dodgers, and not just because their 6-4 win Wednesday gives them one more opportunity to sample Hollywood hotshot Jon Hamm’s favorite thin-crust pizza, Imo’s. In an ideal Los Angeles world, they would have won all three games at Dodger Stadium this week to go back to St. Louis up 3-2, but at least they avoided the worst-case scenario—losing twice at home to end the NLCS in disappointing fashion.

The return trip to Busch Stadium is far from devastating for the Cardinals, who are up 3-2 in the series, though they would have preferred to wrap up the series early and avoid the prospect of having to face Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw one more time. That’s not fun for any opponent, and it doesn’t matter that the Cardinals won when Kershaw started Game 2.

Kershaw has an 0.47 ERA in three playoff starts, after posting a 1.83 ERA this season.

“It’s a pretty good feeling with Clayton pitching on Friday,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said after the game. “We breathe until then. We feel like Clayton is pretty much going to keep you in the game and give you a chance if you can put runs up. We know their guy is really good. It’ll be fun.”

“Their guy” is Michael Wacha, the hard-throwing rookie who has an 0.64 playoff ERA. In the first Kershaw-Wacha matchup, the Cardinals won 1-0 thanks to an unearned run chased home with a shallow sacrifice fly by Jon Jay. One glance at the ERAs for Kershaw and Wacha suggest the margin will likely be razor-thin again on Friday.

“He's a guy I never faced before Game 2, and he's a great pitcher,” said first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who hit two homers for the Dodgers on Wednesday. “He's got great stuff, great changeup, great fastball. But now that we've faced him and we can have an idea how he's going to attack us, we can make our adjustments and feel more confident definitely seeing him a second time. With Kershaw, we're fully comfortable he's going to do the same job he did in Game 2. All we have to do is score for him.”

There’s another thing hovering over this game. It’s not tangible and not quantifiable, but it’s very real, at least to the Cardinals’ large fan base. Last year, the Cardinals blew a 3-1 NLCS lead against the Giants, and the path is clear for that to possibly happen again this year, with Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu scheduled to start the final two games of the series for Los Angeles.

The team is very aware of the possibility, too.

“We have meetings every day with pitchers and hitters and everybody just kind of making the rounds,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said during his pregame press conference. “We've been very clear about the urgency. Not that we had a lack of it last year, as much as just let's remember and a realization of how quickly that can change, not to take anything for granted. Right now, just keep playing the game. Don't get too far ahead, but also don't live in the past, but remember what happened, learn from it, and let's see if we can change the course.”

Last year, the final two NLCS games were in San Francisco. This year, the Cardinals will play at home with two chances to end the series, so at least the setting will be different.